"Caer Guorthegirn"
Little Doward Hillfort, Hereford & Worcester
Nearest town: Monmouth
Nearest village: Ganarew

The Lower Wye valley is lined with Iron Age forts that used to their best advantage the natural hilltops and outcroppings as a base for well-placed settlements. These forts vary widely in size and shape but all were dug in with ditches and earthbanks and originally topped with wooden stockades.

Several Iron Age hillforts lie along the Wye below Doward, marking out the southern edge of pre-Roman territory. The most significant one is at Doward, near what is said to be King Arthur's Cave.

This hillfort is presumed to be the famous but elusive final stronghold of King Vortigern, "Caer Guorthegirn". According to several medieval sources, Vortigern was pursued by St. Germanus and ran to one of his several Welsh fortresses. Was in Gwynedd in the north? Dyfed in the west? Or did he flee to this one, high above a curve of the River Wye?

Nennius in Historia Brittonum (@820-830 AD) chapter 42, says Vortigern's refuge was somewhere around Gueneri (probably Gwent but may be Ganarew).

"Then the king assigned him that city, with all the western provinces of Britain; and departing with his wise men to the sinistral district, he arrived in the region named Gueneri, where he built a city which, according to his name, was called Cair Guorthegirn."

This is clarified in Welsh Triad 51:
Three Dishonoured Men who were in the Island of Britain:
"....And the second is Gwrtheyrn Gwrteneu....
And in the end Uthur and Emrys burned Gwrtheyrn in Castell Gwrthrynyawn beside the Wye, in a single conflagration to avenge their brother."

Although this passage does mention the River Wye, Gwrtheyrnion itself is further west. The hillfort at Doward is closer to the described site, a location further supported by Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae, book Viii, Chapter 2:

"In pursuance therefore of this design, he marched with his army into Cambria, to the town of Genoreu, whither Vortigern had fled for refuge. That town was in the country of Hergin, upon the river Gania, in the mountain called Cloartius."

The "mountain called Cloartius" may be a variation of "Doartius", Mynyd Denarth, or Deu Arth - now known as Doward.

Overlooking the river from the lofty mountainside, it would have been the ideal site for Vortigern's safe haven. (Burned alive by Ambrosius, his own son?) There is also the supposition that this is where Caradoc founded his anti-Roman federation.

At the bottom of a small and obscure looking hill just to the east of the Doward hillfort is a cave which has gained notoriety from a connection with King Arthur. Through a jumbled Dark Ages translation, an older form of Doward can be loosely linked with the name "Arthur" (Deu Arth), which probably explains why this cave is reputed to be one of hundreds of British localities where King Arthur lies sleeping.

More interesting perhaps, or at least more factual, is solid evidence that the cave served as a shelter all the way back to neolithic times. Remnants of such occupants as giant elk, mammoths, wooly rhino, horse, cave bear and lions have been discovered there, along with flints used by hunters of the paleolithic and mesolithic eras. These people were the first of many to enjoy the security of this cave whose cozy recesses extend into the depths of the ancient hill.

Thirty thousand years ago, glaciers carved a lot of caves and rock shelters into the massive limestone cliffs around Doware. At first these caves were occupied by nomadic hunters. After the Ice Age, Paleolithic people were drawn to this area by the plentiful fish and game. Life was so good that they settled down in the valleys and caves of the curving River Wye to stay for the next 15,000 years.

Doward is just south of the better known sites of Goodrich Castle and Simonds Yat. Tintern Abbey is also nearby.

Sources

The excellent website "Vortigern Studies"

More photos of King Arthur's Cave

Another view of the history of Caer Guortigirn

The River Wye photo by Linda Wright

Neighbourhood builders:

Article & Graphics by Fenian Niafer
Map & icon by MacMorna Niafer
Hood design by Fedelm Cruithni

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